Sometimes, it doesn’t feel like we have enough tricks up our sleeves, enough techniques for bypassing sales barriers, enough answers to the hard questions, to really achieve our highest potential and grow revenue consistently. We start to look for methods, tricks, tools, anything that’ll up our closure rates by a few percentage points, and anything that will cut the time we need to spend on each successful sale.
Fortunately, there are quite a few sales hacks waiting to be learned, little things you can be doing to really jump your game up a few steps. None of these is a replacement for sitting down and refining your process with a full featured analytics program, but if you’ve already done that or need a boost now and not after you have time to collect data and experiment, these are the sales hacks you should be using.
The simplest of sales hacks also serves as one of the most potent. If you want to grow revenue, everyone on your team should be pushing for early buy-in. What do we mean by that? It means convincing the prospect to put time or resources on the line as early as possible. Even a minor buy-in, such as the scheduling of a follow up call, an agreement to fill out a survey for a quote, the forwarding of paperwork that might be relevant, creates a powerful incentive for the prospect to continue working with you.
This is one of several sales hacks that works, in part, on the same psychology that causes the sunk-cost fallacy in business. People like to believe they make good decisions about their time and money, and having invested one or the other in you, will be inclined to do so again in the future. Just be sure that you don’t abuse it as a cheap trick, as dissatisfied customers often hurt the bottom line more than prospects that don’t convert.
Taking notes may seem like a silly thing to put on this list, but studies show that we remember and think more carefully about things we write down by hand. Taking frequent notes while dealing with a prospect, while developing your process, while putting together a plan for the day, will improve your memory, insight, and general efficiency across the board. All with minimal expense or effort.
Perhaps the most potent sales hacks to grow revenue in the long term, focusing on developing a rapport with customers over making the sale gives you myriad benefits without costing you anything. At absolute worst, you’ll take a bit longer to close individual sales-but you’ll drop your return rates, you’ll encourage positive word of mouth, and perhaps most importantly you’ll skyrocket your repeat customer numbers. Build strong enough connections with your customers, and they’ll choose to buy from you instead of the competition even if the competition pulls ahead in features or buy even when economic downturns are eating away at your other business.
There are several sales hacks that fall under the general umbrella of building/maintaining morale. Things like proper incentives, recognizing exceptional work, keeping failures private, establishing realistic goals, and keeping everyone from overworking all contribute to a positive work environment. Let morale drop, and everyone will be looking for a new job-and it will be your most important sales people, the top sellers, that find those new jobs.
Follow-ups are oddly unpopular, but what group could possibly be considered better pre-qualified than those who have already bought from you? Touching base with past customers keeps them aware of your company, keeps them aware of your new offerings, keeps them talking about you to their friends that might also become customers. There’s so much to be gained and so little to be lost that this, like other sales hacks focused on the back end, should be a part of every sales teams’ standard playbook.
Claire has 4+ years of experience in sales and recruitment. As a Director of Client Services, her main objective is to connect great people to great companies by building strong relationships with both top clients and candidates in the sales industry. She specializes in sales roles of all seniority levels for both enterprise and start-up clients North American wide. When Claire isn't networking with top talent, she enjoys being outdoors, traveling and spending time with friends & family.